Understanding AWS Free Tier - Query from Viewers - 002

Most of us are pretty excited to learn and work on AWS. Thanks to AWS that there is Free Tier available to practice as well. But, most of the learners end up getting bill even after being cautious.

I have picked up following query from my YouTube channel for AWS. I have got many similar queries earlier as well.

I am following your all videos from the beginning on AWS sysops tutorials and its fantastic the way you explain. here i have a small doubt on free tier account. 750 hours of ec2 instance... how is that calculated? Is that only one instance limit for 750 hours or many instances multiplied with number of hours used..? Actually i have used 2 instances while practicing with 30GB of EBS each and i could see the amount in some dollars month to date in billing console. Is that amount i need to pay.. i mean am i crossed the free tier limits. kindly clarify me this please... i have tried contacting aws support but again that also need to subscribed it seems every where they are trying to grab from us :( Thanks in advance.
___________________

ANS: In order to understand above scenario, consider following points --
1. In case of an EC2, there are multiple cost factors - EC2 instance charges, EBS charge, Data-out charges, Elastic IP charges etc. 
2. Read Free Tier FAQ as well.  

As explained in FAQ, you can use 750 hours of Linux AND 750 hours of Windows EC2. You can have 2 EC2 Linux running 375 hours each as well. They would look at the aggregate hours only. 
But, in the above case the cost would have been incurred because of EBS usage. For EBS, AWS gives "30 GB of Amazon Elastic Block Storage in any combination of General Purpose (SSD) or Magnetic"

As the user has run 2 Windows instances, EBS usage would have gone more than Free Tier allowed limits (each Windows EC2 takes 30 GB minimum EBS). Also, remember that EBS continues to cost you after creation, till it is terminated (because your data is consuming the storage on Cloud, right!!). EC2 instance costs you only if it is running. There is no charge when it is in stopped state. 

Happy Learning AWS !!! Please SHARE with your friends on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Selected videos!